Thursday March 28th, 2024
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The Whimsical Egyptian Art Label that's Making Waves with Its Abstract Pieces

With flowing paint strokes and blotches of colour, Ehab Hassouna, artist and founder of Odd Behavior challenges the reaches of our imaginations.

Staff Writer

When it comes to creating incredible pieces of art there are two types of people in the world; those who paint realistic beautiful landscapes and pensive portraits, and those who those who create abstract art that doesn’t look like anything at all. 

Ehab Hassouna, founder of Odd Behavior is the latter of the two. You look at his paintings and scratch your head. It’s not like looking at a painting of a tree and knowing the artist meant to draw, well, a tree; it's more engaging, more visually arresting; it divides opinion among even the most ardent of art enthusiasts - let alone us commoners who don't actually get art.“With abstract art everyone is free to see whatever they want - this is what I like the most about it. On my end, it’s all very intuitive, I go to my studio and just pick colours. I don’t know the exact outcome of whatever I’m doing,” says Hassouna. 

Hassouna’s layered paintings are beautifully textured, instilling a sense of vibrancy and movement. The whimsical colorways and playful patterns flow into each other, but sometimes feel fragmented, or unfinished. “I tend to draw inspiration from elements of nature, mainly the ocean. As a diver, I know life under water is completely different, so I like to fiddle around with the colour blue for example – I find blue to be very visual and familiar,” continues Hassouna. 

The talented artist also also happens to be a photographer. “I created Odd Behavior to separate my art from my photography but I sometimes work on projects that integrate the two,” he told us. He created an art print series called Icon, featuring his nine idols, including Tutankhamun, Kurt Cobain, and Michael Jackson, where he printed their photos, then whipped a paintbrush stroke over the images which he then photographed and reprinted. 

Odd Behavior paintings are sold through Instagram and on Sheyaka online department store and Artsmart. Check Odd Behavior’s Instagram page here. This account is definitely more interesting than your ex-college roommates’ endless stream of food photos.